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Louisiana's higher education competitiveness a concern, according to officials

King Alexander.jpg

LSU President and Chancellor F. King Alexander voiced plenty of concerns about Louisiana's higher education budget at a House Appropriations Meeting Monday morning.
(NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune archive)

Louisiana's $2.6 billion higher education budget will continue to be squeezed next year, even if the state Legislature agrees to allocate the $40 million Gov. Bobby Jindal wants for colleges and universities to do high-demand job training and development.

Jindal has touted his proposal to set up the Workforce and Innovation for a Stronger Economy Fund, referred to as the WISE Fund, for over two months. But even with that influx of $40 million and some anticipated tuition hikes, Louisiana's higher education community will still lose $11 million, when compared to the funding it received last year, under the Jindal administration's proposed budget for 2014-2015.

Louisiana continues to spend less money per higher education student, on average, than other states, according to the state House of Representatives budget office. In 2011-2012, Louisiana spent $10,467 per student enrolled in higher education. The United States average was $13,583 per student in that same academic year.

"What we spend per student, that really matters, and we are 35 percent below the national average," said F. King Alexander, LSU's chancellor and president, speaking before the House Appropriations Committee Monday morning.

The state's colleges and universities continue to fall behind when it comes to faculty and staff compensation, making it more difficult for the state systems to compete with for high-quality employees, said higher education presidents. Tenured professors at Louisiana public colleges and universities make an average of $92,667, while people in the same position nationwide make $112,815 on average, according to the House budget office.

Yet Louisiana's college graduates are not saddled with nearly as much student debt as those in other states. Louisiana was among the states with the lowest amount of debt per student when it came to people who graduated in 2012.

"We are not the cause of the national cost crisis [in higher education.] We are well below the national average for student indebtedness," said Alexander.

Still, even the school's flagship university, LSU, is struggling with private fund-raising and recruiting students from outside the state, two tactics public schools in other states typically use to stave off funding cuts and tuition hikes.

LSU just raised over $50 million for a new engineering building, making the current year one of its biggest in terms of private dollar donations, but the school still isn't where it needs to be annually in terms of attracting private money, said Alexander.

"We are trying to get our businesses and industries to put some skin in the game as well," he said. "[Private donations] have to become part of our annual base."

Alexander also said LSU was being "outpaced" when it came to recruiting students from outside the state. Non-Louisiana residents pay higher tuition and can't qualify for the expensive Taylor Opportunity Program for Students (TOPS) scholarship, so they cost the state government less money.

The University of Alabama, for example, has five times the number of staff members devoted to attracting students from outside the state that LSU does. Nearly 50 percent of Alabama's student body is from elsewhere, compared to just 20 percent of LSU's population, according to Alexander.

"Virginia, Michigan, Alabama -- they all recruit heavily outside the state, but we don't want to reduce our commitment to Louisiana," said Alexander.

During the Appropriations meeting, Louisiana college and universities presidents pushed the House Appropriations Committee hard to include the WISE Fund in the state budget, but some legislators are skeptical of it.

Louisiana's college and universities are expected to compete over the WISE Fund with different proposals for permanently expanding programs in science, technology, manufacturing and engineering. But given recent projections for next year's revenue, it's not clear that the Legislature would be able to continue to pay for the WISE fund after this fiscal cycle, said legislators.

"No one can sit in this room and say that in 2015-2016, that $40 million is going to be there," said Rep. John Schroder, R-Covington, about the WISE Fund's price tag. "Last year, Santa Claus came, and this year we are going to need the Easter Bunny for the state budget."

"If you aren't already, you should be nervous for next year," said W. Clinton "Bubba" Rasberry, chairman of Louisiana's Board of Regents, about the higher education budget.

If the Legislature can't fund WISE in the out years, the program will be far less effective than Jindal initially anticipated. Louisiana's university and college presidents said their schools would have scale back their initial plans for expanding academics programs under WISE because they wouldn't know if the funding would be available moving forward.

"Instead of hiring a dozen to 15 engineering professors, we may only be able to hire four or five," said Alexander.

Still, the looming cuts may speak to a larger issue when it comes to the Louisiana funding higher education. Colorado just became the first state to stop using any public money to support its universities entirely, and New York is expected to do the same in a couple of years, said Alexander. Other states, like North Carolina, are doubling down on their higher education investments, he said.

"This will amount to which states will continue to stay in the higher education business," said Alexander.

Yet when thinking about public funding for college and universities, Louisiana needs to keep in mind that it doesn't necessarily have as many residents who can afford to carry the tuition costs of a public university all by themselves like those living in other states can, said Sandra Woodley, president of the University of Louisiana system.

"We are a relatively poor state with high needs in higher education," she said.